Martin Babička: Esotericism and Postsocialist Transformation: The Case of Astrology in Czech and Slovak Media and Some Theoretical Considerations
Zgodovina na Špici / History on the Edge
You are kindly invited to the new event of the History on the Edge series, which will take place on Wednesday, 9 October 2024 at 13:00, at the INZ premises or at the ZOOM link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86949706378. The lecture will be given by Martin Babička, and the title of the lecture is ” Esotericism and Postsocialist Transformation: The Case of Astrology in Czech and Slovak Media and Some Theoretical Considerations”. The lecture will be in English.
The postsocialist media were teeming with astrologers and healers. While some see this phenomenon as coinciding with the rise of the New Age in the West, others point to the specifics
of postsocialist esotericism. What is certain is that the collapse of state socialism brought about a major cultural transformation, part of which included a revision of the unconditional belief in scientific rationality. But should we regard esotericism as a Western liberal import, or as a relic of socialist irrational undercurrents? And can the study of esoteric practice reveal some things that we have so far overlooked in the study of postsocialist transformation? This talk will explore the reconfiguration of the relationship between politics, expertise and esotericism using the case of astrology in the Czech and Slovak media of the early 1990s and provide some initial theoretical thoughts on why and how to study esotericism in the transformation of East-Central Europe.
